Top 10 Tourist Attractions in Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a tropical island country located in the Indian Ocean, known as the "Pearl of the Indian Ocean". Sri Lanka is also known as Ceylon, if you like tea, then you may have heard of "Ceylon black tea", it is very famous. Not only that, there are many beaches of different styles and hotels with colonial style, which attract a large number of tourists every year. Do you want to take a memorable tour to Sri Lanka? This article will introduce you to several famous attractions for your first time visiting in Sri Lanka.

Lion Rock

Lion Rock is one of Sri Lanka's national treasures and is known as the eighth wonder of the world. It is a palace built on a huge orange-red rock, surrounded by two rivers and three walls underneath. From a distance, it looks like a city in the sky. Because of the shape of a sleeping lion, so named Lion Rock. But with the passage of time, the lion's head was slowly weathered and eroded, and finally, only the lion's body remained. This shows its long history. Lion Rock is about 200 meters high, and it is surrounded by very steep, while there are many colorful murals painted on the surrounding rocks, some of them are not clear because they have been weathered for a long time. At the foot of the mountain are two huge lion's paws, and up the entrance, to the paws, you can see the broken walls of a palace and the ruins of the king's throne. Standing at the top, the view of the surrounding primeval jungle below looks quiet and mysterious. Every visitor who comes to Lion Rock does not fail to exclaim that it is a great project. Combined with nature's magic work, Lion Rock is an absolute miracle.

Location: Sigiriya Peak, Sigiriya City, Sri Lanka

Lion Rock

Buddha Tooth Relic

The Buddha Tooth Relic Temple is very popular with local Buddhists as a Buddhist shrine. Because the temple houses the tooth relics of Shakyamuni, it is a place of pilgrimage for Buddhists around the world. In front of the entrance of the Buddha's Tooth Temple, there is a golden standing statue of a monk, who stands straight at the entrance looking into the distance. Before entering the temple, you need to take off your shoes, which represents respect for the statue. There is a golden seated Buddha in the center of the hall on the second floor of the temple, many ivory tusks standing on both sides of the hall, lotus flowers and lingering incense in front of the Buddha statue. Inside the golden pagoda on the left side of the hall is where the Buddha's tooth is placed. The temple sends three senior monks to open the door of the inner hall at three times a day, morning, noon and night, to hold the pilgrimage ceremony. The scene was sacred and solemn.

Location: Sri Dalada Veediya, Kandy

Buddha Tooth Relic

Royal Botanical Gardens

The Royal Botanical Gardens of Sri Lanka, also known as the Peradeniya Botanical Gardens. It used to be the royal garden of the King of Kandy and is a very pristine place. There are more than 4,000 kinds of tropical plants in the botanical garden, and many rare plants can be seen here. Many of the old trees in the garden are hundreds of years old, and there are countless trees that are tens of meters tall. There is a kind of tree called a fine collar bottle tree, it blooms only once in thirty years, whenever the flowers bloom, the whole tree looks like a pyramid, that kind of scene looks very spectacular. In addition to this, there are trees that produce venom, and trees whose branches and leaves keep poisonous snakes away, which is a big shock. Each plant here has a special introduction, and because of its equatorial location and Mediterranean climate, the botanical garden is vibrant and full of flowers all year round. If you come to Sri Lanka, please don't forget to visit this beautiful tropical botanical garden.

Location: 5 km southwest of Kandy city

Galle Fort

If you want to learn about the history of Sri Lanka, then you must not miss Galle Fort. Galle Fort is located on the Indian Ocean waterfront. It was originally built by the Portuguese and later continued to be expanded during the Dutch colonial period. Thus it is a seaside castle that combines European style with traditional South Asian architecture. On the walls of the old fortress of Galle, cannons from centuries ago still remain today, only to have been transformed from a former weapon to a tourist attraction. The symbol of Galle Fort is the clock tower located west of the main city gate, which is still accurate in time despite its age. It is relaxing to stroll through the quiet streets of the old fortress and feel the sea breeze blowing in from the Indian Ocean. There are colonial armories and gunpowder stores and houses built by the Dutch, which seem to tell visitors about the history of the past. We would like to remind you that it rains quite frequently in Galle, so don't forget to bring an umbrella when you go to Galle Fort.
Location: Galle City, Sri Lanka

Galle

Pinnawala Elephant Orphanage

There are several elephant orphanages in the world, one of which is located in Sri Lanka. The elephant orphanage mainly adopts young elephants who are homeless or lost from the herd and injured. As you walk around the elephant orphanage, you can see elephants walking by everywhere. Perhaps they are used to the daily visits of tourists, and even if there are people around, they will start their day as if no one is around. They eat at a fixed time every day, and then go to the river to bathe in the company, this life seems very comfortable. Sri Lankans treat elephants as national treasures and have even summarized a special Elephant Acupuncture Chart for elephants. They know every part of the elephant's body, which not only can better tame them, but also can always notice the changes in their bodies, so take a look if you are interested.

Location: Pinnawala Village, Gaikra District, Central Province, Sri Lanka

Yala National Park

The southeastern coast of Sri Lanka is home to Asia's only pristine wilderness jungle park, Yala National Park. It is famous for its rich and diverse rare wildlife. Yala National Park contains almost all species of animals in Sri Lanka. Because of the huge area, it has many different ecosystems, like grasslands, dense forests, lakes, and sandy areas you can see in the same park. It is worth mentioning that one of the world's endangered species, the Lankan leopard, exists here and many people come here every year just to have a leopard chasing trip. Driving through the park in a jeep, we could see various birds nesting in the trees, wild boars and bears playing in the bush, and herds of elk and wild elephants strolling leisurely around the lake. If you too want to have a close encounter with nature and feel the charm of the pristine environment and wildlife, come and see the Yala National Park!

Location: Paratupana, Yala, Sri Lanka

Yala National Park

Pink Post Office

In the English style town of Sri Lanka, there is a famous net-famous attraction, which is the Pink Post Office. Because of its pink appearance, it looks like a castle in a fairy tale world from afar, so it attracts tourists from all over the world to take pictures every year. The Pink Post Office not only looks romantic on the outside, but inside the post office, visitors can use their own photos or use their lover's photos to make stamps to keep as a souvenir. In addition, the post office also sells a variety of postcards, so we can buy one and send it to our family or friends in distant places to express our thoughts to them. Please be reminded that the Pink Post Office is located in Nouvellier, where there is a big difference in temperature between day and night, so please don't forget to prepare a thick jacket to prevent you from catching a cold if you come to visit.

Location: Nouveau Eliya town center, Sri Lanka

Dambulla Cave Temple

The Dambulla Cave Temple, which has been in existence for more than 2,000 years, is built on a rocky hill and consists of five caves, which are typical of Sri Lankan religious architecture. On the way to the temple, barefoot locals were seen everywhere praying in devotion. There is a very strange sight in the grotto, that is the cave water will flow up along the top of the stone cave crevices, no one can still explain this phenomenon, and do not know where the water actually comes from. The grottoes of the temple were all chiseled out by hand and contain many statues of Buddha in different poses and beautiful colorful murals, which basically depict the lifestyle of Siddhartha Gautama. The statues and murals are still in bright colors as if they had been carved only recently, making people wonder at the skill of the builders.

Location: South of Dambulla City, Sri Lanka

Blue House Tea Factory

If you like to drink tea, then I suggest you must not miss the Blue House Tea Factory. Not only do they have a wide variety of tea leaves, but the factory is also very beautiful in appearance. Among the patches of tea fields, a blue and white house stands in the middle, giving a fresh and unconventional feeling, it is a very famous tea factory in Sri Lanka. When you come to the factory, if you want to know how the tea is made, there will be a special receptionist to explain how the tea leaves are picked, fermented again, and finally dried, and different kinds of tea are made in different ways. In addition to that, the restaurant here offers free tea to visitors, so don't forget to buy some to take home to your family and friends if you like. Highly recommend the famous Ceylon black tea!

Location: Ramboda, Nuwara Eliya, Sri Lanka

Sea Train

Sri Lanka sea train was originally a railroad built during the British colonial period to transport tea, because of the proximity to the sea, so sitting in the train has a feeling of driving on the sea, and nowadays has become one of the famous tourist attractions in Sri Lanka. If you want to feel the sea train, then we recommend you to take the train that departs from Galle station to Colombo station in the afternoon, so that while the train is in motion, you can see the sunset in the distance and the sea breeze from the Indian Ocean blowing on your face, giving you a feeling of coming to the comic world. This is also the place where the inspiration for Chihiro came from. The sea train travels very slowly, and it is very safe for tourists to stick their heads out of the windows even if they do, so we can take our time to enjoy the dream-like scenes outside the train.

Location: Galle Railway Station (Galle-Colombo line), Sri Lanka

Sri Lanka is a fascinating country with pristine jungles, the sea, a wide variety of styles of architecture and vast landscapes. If you are interested in Sri Lanka, please don't hesitate to contact us, just simply tell us your interests and needs, and one of our travel experts will create a tailor-made itinerary for you within 24hrs.